Policy Watch

Trump to overhaul visa program for high-skilled workers. President Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday that aims to overhaul the H-1B visa program used by tech companies to bring high-skilled workers to the U.S. The administration says that the executive order will make it more difficult for U.S. companies to look overseas for employees to fill middle-income jobs. Senior administration officials described the current H-1B visa program as a lottery system that indiscriminately hands out work visas to contracting firms recruiting low-skilled, low-wage workers to replace domestic laborers. They say that a new system is necessary to ensure that the program returns to its original purpose of bringing in high-skilled, high-paid workers to fill more specialized or technical roles. The executive order will direct the Labor, Justice, Homeland security and State departments to undertake a wholesale review of the H-1B visa program and to put forth recommendations that can be achieved administratively or through legislation. The Departments could adjust the wage scale the government uses to assess applicants, giving preference to workers with advanced degrees or taking “a more vigorous stance” in enforcing violations of the problem in an effort to root out fraud and abuse. The executive order is not expected to address the number of visas that are given out annually, but is intended to raise the qualifying criteria for applicants so that only top earners with specific skill sets are considered. [The Hill]

Economic Indicators & News

U.S. Housing Starts Decreased 6.8% in March. U.S. housing starts fell 6.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.215 million from a month earlier, according to the Commerce Department on Tuesday. However, the decrease is not enough to signal a reversal from the long-term trend of improvement in new home construction. The decline in housing starts comes after an unusually strong winter, boosted by temperate weather in most parts of the country. Single-family housing starts in February hit their highest level since October 2007. Residential building permits, which can signal future home construction and tend to be a less volatile measure, rose 3.6% to an annual pace of 1.260 million last month and were up 17% compared with the same month last year. The trend for the year in housing is one of steady improvement. New home construction was up 8.1% in the first quarter from the same period in 2016, and permits in the first three months of 2017 jumped 10.4% from a year earlier. [WSJ]

IMF Increases Global Growth Forecast to 3.5%, Seeing Positive Signals on Global Investment, Manufacturing and Consumer Confidence. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that the global economy is on course for its best performance in several years, despite trade tensions and looming geopolitical threats. In its flagship report on the state of the economy, the IMF nudged up its forecast for world growth this year a tenth of a percentage point to 3.5%, the fastest rate in five years if the IMF is correct. Investors are concerned over a potential U.S. standoff with North Korea, France’s elections and Washington’s use of force in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Nonetheless, global investment, manufacturing and consumer confidence are signaling strength. U.S. growth is projected to accelerate, and Europe and Japan are now showing signs of recovery. Oil prices have risen from 2016 lows, increasing inflation readings from exceptionally low levels and offering hope for economies that are dependent on the export of commodities. The IMF kept its forecast pickup for U.S. growth at 2.3% for the year – up from 1.6% last year – and notched higher outlooks for all five of Europe’s largest economies. The U.K’s bump up was the largest, a 0.5 percentage point increase to 2% for the year. In Asia, another dose of government stimulus has pushed China’s growth forecast up a tenth of a percentage point to 6.6% and Japan’s outlook by 0.4 percentage point to 1.2%. [WSJ]

<h3>National Bureau of Economic Research (Public Use Data Archive)</h3><p><img width="180" height="43" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/180/height/43/478_nber.rev.1407530465.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image478 lw_align_right" data-max-w="329" data-max-h="79"/>Founded in 1920, the <strong>National Bureau of Economic Research</strong> is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to promoting a greater understanding of how the economy works. The NBER is committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic community.</p><p> Quick Link to <strong>Public Use Data Archive</strong>: <a href="http://www.nber.org/data/" target="_blank">http://www.nber.org/data/</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>The Penn World Table</h3><p> The Penn World Table provides purchasing power parity and national income accounts converted to international prices for 189 countries/territories for some or all of the years 1950-2010.</p><p><a href="https://pwt.sas.upenn.edu/php_site/pwt71/pwt71_form.php" target="_blank">Quick link.</a> </p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>Congressional Budget Office</h3><p><img width="180" height="180" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/180/height/180/380_cbo-logo.rev.1406822035.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image380 lw_align_right" data-max-w="180" data-max-h="180"/>Since its founding in 1974, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has produced independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process.</p><p> The agency is strictly nonpartisan and conducts objective, impartial analysis, which is evident in each of the dozens of reports and hundreds of cost estimates that its economists and policy analysts produce each year. CBO does not make policy recommendations, and each report and cost estimate discloses the agency’s assumptions and methodologies. <strong>CBO provides budgetary and economic information in a variety of ways and at various points in the legislative process.</strong> Products include baseline budget projections and economic forecasts, analysis of the President’s budget, cost estimates, analysis of federal mandates, working papers, and more.</p><p> Quick link to Products page: <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/about/our-products" target="_blank">http://www.cbo.gov/about/our-products</a></p><p> Quick link to Topics: <a href="http://www.cbo.gov/topics" target="_blank">http://www.cbo.gov/topics</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>Internal Revenue Service: Tax Statistics</h3><p><img width="155" height="200" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/155/height/200/486_irs_logo.rev.1407789424.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image486 lw_align_left" srcset="/live/image/scale/2x/gid/4/width/155/height/200/486_irs_logo.rev.1407789424.jpg 2x" data-max-w="463" data-max-h="596"/>Find statistics on business tax, individual tax, charitable and exempt organizations, IRS operations and budget, and income (SOI), as well as statistics by form, products, publications, papers, and other IRS data.</p><p> Quick link to <strong>Tax Statistics, where you will find a wide range of tables, articles, and data</strong> that describe and measure elements of the U.S. tax system: <a href="http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Stats-2" target="_blank">http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Stats-2</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>

<h3>National Center for Education Statistics</h3><p><strong><img width="400" height="80" alt="" src="/live/image/gid/4/width/400/height/80/479_nces.rev.1407787656.jpg" class="lw_image lw_image479 lw_align_right" data-max-w="400" data-max-h="80"/>The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations.</strong> NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES has an extensive Statistical Standards Program that consults and advises on methodological and statistical aspects involved in the design, collection, and analysis of data collections in the Center. To learn more about the NCES, <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/about/" target="_blank">click here</a>.</p><p> ﻿Quick link to NCES Data Tools: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=4" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/datatools/index.asp?DataToolSectionID=4</a></p><p> Quick link to Quick Tables and Figures: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/quicktables/</a></p><p> Quick link to NCES Fast Facts (Note: The primary purpose of the Fast Facts website is to provide users with concise information on a range of educational issues, from early childhood to adult learning.): <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/" target="_blank">http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/#</a></p><p>See all <a href="/data-resources/">data and resources</a> »</p>